1936 daily operations at St. Regis. In late 1936 St. Regis Kraft Co.'s Tacoma plant began operating with a crew of 250 at its newly remodeled and modernized facility in the Tideflats. Boland studios paid visits to the pulp plant on December 21-22, 1936, to photograph the new interiors including machinery. Here two unidentified St. Regis employees focus their attention of one of the new machines. G37.1-048 (T.Times 10-14-36, p. 5-article; T. Times 11-25-36, p. 5-article)

St. Regis Paper Co. (Tacoma)--1930-1940; Paper industry--1930-1940; Lumber industry--1930-1940; Mills--Tacoma--1930-1940; Machinery;

1936 daily operations at St. Regis. The Tacoma St. Regis underwent expansion and modernization of its facility in the Tideflats during most of 1936. New machinery was brought in as the demand for bleached pulp grew. By the end of November of that year, the pulp plant had started operating with an initial crew of 250. Eventually the plant would run continuously on a 24-hour schedule with four staggered shifts of eight hours and provide employment for many Tacomans. (T.Times 10-14-36, p. 5-article; T. Times 11-25-36, p. 5-article)

St. Regis Paper Co. (Tacoma)--1930-1940; Paper industry--1930-1940; Lumber industry--1930-1940; Mills--Tacoma--1930-1940; Machinery;

Unidentified equipment at St. Regis. St. Regis Kraft in Tacoma had undergone a $1,000,000 modernization project so that the company could move into bleached pulp production. New machinery was purchased and the site expanded. The purpose of the tall structure shown above was not provided; each row had six concrete or metal handles. G37.1-027

St. Regis Paper Co. (Tacoma); Paper industry--1930-1940; Lumber industry--1930-1940; Mills--Tacoma--1930-1940; Equipment;

Reconstruction and expansion of the St. Regis Kraft facility in the Tideflats was nearly completed in late December of 1936. The company had spent $1,000,000, a tidy sum in the Depression years, to update their large pulp plant to handle the production of bleached pulp. New machinery was purchased to deal with 25,000 short logs per hour, including electric saws to cut the logs into irregular-shaped chunks and machines to bark the logs before going to regular pulp chippers. The bleaching unit would be ready in early 1937. G34.1-104 (T.Times 10-14-36, p. 5-article; T.Times 11-25-36, p. 5-article)

St. Regis Paper Co. (Tacoma); Paper industry--1930-1940; Lumber industry--1930-1940; Mills--Tacoma--1930-1940;

Huge sheets of bleached pulp are being manufactured at the Tacoma St. Regis Kraft plant in February of 1937. The plant had recently reopened a few months ago after much remodeling and expansion. St. Regis was moving into the growing bleached pulp business. According to the Tacoma Times, five million board feet of giant hemlock logs were chewed into chips every month and converted into pulp to be used in the manufacture of paper. This meant that the Tacoma plant produced 150 tons of pulp daily; the whole process from sawing logs to chipping to cooking with chemicals, washed and dried and finally baling took about six hours. St. Regis Kraft was a wholly owned subsidiary of the St. Regis Paper Co. Pulp from Tacoma supplied the eastern paper mills of the St. Regis Paper Co. as well as being exported to foreign countries, including Japan. G37.1-061 (T.Times 1-27-37, p. 1, 5-articles on St. Regis)

St. Regis Paper Co. (Tacoma)--1930-1940; Paper industry--1930-1940; Lumber industry--1930-1940; Mills--Tacoma--1930-1940; Machinery;

Men are loading a completed order of multiwall paper sacks at St. Regis Paper Company's new bag plant. A railroad freight car has been pulled up inside the covered loading dock at the plant and the bags, stacked on a pallet, are being delivered to the freight car with a forklift.

St. Regis Paper Co. (Tacoma)--1950-1960; Mills--Tacoma--1950-1960; Paper industry--Tacoma--1950-1960; Shipping--Tacoma--1950-1960; Railroad freight cars--Tacoma; Loading docks--Tacoma;

Progress photographs of St. Regis Paper Co. expansion taken on August 11, 1960, on behalf of Malcolm McGhie, industrial consultant, New York. Long general view of machine room taken from balcony on north end. The machine room was enlarged at the Kraft paper and board mill located in the Tideflats during a twenty million dollar expansion scheduled for 1960-61. A new paper machine would be added by year's end which would increase and diversify the Tacoma mill's paper and board capacity. (1960 Annual Report, p. 6, 7)

St. Regis Paper Co. (Tacoma)--1960-1970; Progress photographs; Machinery;

View of bark conveyer at St. Regis' Tacoma plant. One small log is resting on side of conveyer belt. Fibre Making Processes, Inc., had its 12 foot barking drum installed in early July, 1961. Photograph ordered by Fibre Making Processes, Inc., Chicago.

St. Regis Paper Co. (Tacoma)--1960-1970; Paper industry--Tacoma--1960-1970; Machinery;

The discharge end of a new Fibre Making Processes, Inc., barking drum with view of discharge gate and cut small logs; barking drum located at St. Regis Paper Co.'s Tacoma plant. The bark would be removed by abrasive action of the rotating mechanical drum. Photograph ordered by Fibre Making Processes, Inc., Chicago.

St. Regis Paper Co. (Tacoma)--1960-1970; Paper industry--Tacoma--1960-1970; Machinery;

St. Regis Paper Co. employee leans over a Langston machine on September 29, 1961. Man appears to be working with small roll of kraft paper. The Samuel M. Langston Co. made machines, basically rewinders, for the corrugated container industry. Based in Camden, N.J., they were in operations for more than one hundred years. Photograph ordered by the Samuel Langston Co.

Machinery; Paper industry--Tacoma--1960-1970; St. Regis Paper Co. (Tacoma)--1960-1970;

ca. 1959. Cement bags being produced in St. Regis's multi-wall bag plant in Tacoma. The bags are for Dacotah Portland Cement, produced by the South Dakota Cement plant in Rapid City, SD.

St. Regis Paper Co. (Tacoma)--1950-1960; Mills--Tacoma--1950-1960; Paper industry--Tacoma--1950-1960;

On spec. for the Times, Labor Day. Interior views of the St. Regis Paper Company. The paper machine had variable speeds from 450 - 2,100 feet per minute according to the kind of paper being made. St. Regis expected the new paper machine to run at a rate of 2,000 feet per minute and to be capable of producing 240 tons of paper per day.

St. Regis Paper Co. (Tacoma)--1940-1950; Paper industry--Tacoma--1940-1950; Machinery;

Logs from the St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Company could be easily transported via railroad to the St. Regis Paper Company for pulp and paper operations. Both companies were rapidly expanding due to high demand for their products. View of construction materials placed near the St. Regis water tower and railroad tracks; for several years in the late 40's and early 50's, St. Regis underwent massive expansion with the construction of a multi-wall bag plant and kraft paper facilities. St. Regis operated 24 hours a day, seven days a week and total expenditures in 1951 would total nearly ten million dollars.

Progress photographs; St. Regis Paper Co. (Tacoma)--1950-1960; Paper industry--Tacoma--1950-1960;

Construction of the new building for the Combustion Engineering Company furnace at St. Regis Paper Company. Six stories high, it was built in conjunction with a copper electric precipitator, had a capacity of 225 tons, and was to be completed by the middle of April. This was part of the continuing eight-year expansion program started by St. Regis in 1945. When St. Regis took over the Union Paper Company in 1936, the mill was producing 150 tons a day. In 1952 St. Regis produced 400 tons of brown sulphate pulp per day. (TNT, 2/17/1952, p.C-14)

St. Regis Paper Co. (Tacoma)--1950-1960; Paper industry--Tacoma--1950-1960;

Stand-by crane at St. Regis. This crane, manufactured by Ederer Engineering in Seattle, is able to move loads up and down nearly two stories inside this tall building along a horizontal trolly near the roof line of the building.

Paper industry--Tacoma--1950-1960; Hoisting machinery; Industrial facilities--Tacoma; St. Regis Paper Co. (Tacoma)--1950-1960;

An elevated view of the hydraulic barking process in the wood room at the St. Regis Paper plant shows unbarked logs in the background just received from the log storage pond. Logs then pass through the hydraulic barker under 1,400-pound pressure from jets of water stripping the logs in a matter of seconds. A man is seen near the center of the photograph using a tool to remove a rough spot from the log where a limb protruded. The cleanly barked logs will move on at once to the chipper where the log will be cut into chips 3/4 inch long and 1/8 inch thick, ready to be put into digesters. (TNT, 2/17/1952; St. Regis Paper Co. 1951 Annual Report)

Paper industry--Tacoma--1950-1960; Mechanical systems--Tacoma; Machinery; St. Regis Paper Co. (Tacoma)--1950-1960;

A driver is leaning on the cab of a truck from Veneer Chip Transport waiting his turn to unload chips at St. Regis Paper Company's new chip receiving station, completed in 1951. In Tacoma's fiber conservation program, an increasing percentage of the sulphate pulp is manufactured from chips made out of waste wood formerly burned at local wood-using plants. A big 12-ton hoist is upending the detached carrier bed of another truck at a 58 degree tilt to unload wood chips quickly. This equipment unloads three cars an hour. (St. Regis Paper Co. 1951 Annual Report)

Paper industry--Tacoma--1950-1960; St. Regis Paper Co. (Tacoma)--1950-1960; Trucks--Tacoma--1950-1960; Veneer Chip Transport (Tacoma);

A view of trucks and the 12-ton hoist used to dump full loads of wood chips at the St. Regis Paper plant. The chips flow by gravity onto a conveyor belt into piles that stand 60 feet into the air by means of an elaborate four-way pneumatic system. Moving the mountains of chips had been systemized into a push-button operation to deliver chips onto the correct pile according to species of wood, pine, white fir, hemlock or Douglas fir.

Paper industry--Tacoma--1950-1960; St. Regis Paper Co. (Tacoma)--1950-1960; Trucks--Tacoma--1950-1960; Veneer Chip Transport (Tacoma);

This elevated view of the St. Regis Paper Company yard shows the drive for trucks bringing wood chips to the pulp and paper mill at the mouth of the Puyallup River. A truck pulling a loaded trailer is seen at the left while a truck cab is seen backed up to a tall crane lifting a trailer to empty the chips into a chute. A truck cab pulling an empty trailer can be seen leaving the area in the middle of the photograph. Large silos (there are seven all together) seen on the right store wood ships for St. Regis' hungry pulp mill. Chips are transferred to the silos from outdoor piles before they go the digester.

Paper industry--Tacoma; St. Regis Paper Co. (Tacoma)--1950-1960; Trucks--Tacoma--1950-1960;

St. Regis Paper Company dominated the Tacoma Tideflats with their ever expanding facilities at the terminus of the Puyallup Waterway. Taken from the top of the water tank. Ordered by St. Regis Paper Co., Mr. J.H. McCarthy.

St. Regis Paper Co. (Tacoma)--1940-1950; Paper industry--Tacoma--1940-1950;

Dexter's Machine at St. Regis Paper Company. During 1950 the pulp mill at Tacoma was expanded. St. Regis made kraft paper at six mills with a combined capacity of approximately 360,000 tons a year. Ordered by Bird Machine Company, South Walpole, Massachusetts, Mr. V. Fahlgren.

Paper industry--Tacoma--1950-1960; Machinery; Industrial facilities--Tacoma--1950-1960; St. Regis Paper Co. (Tacoma)--1950-1960;

St. Regis Paper Company, Tacoma's pulp mill, was constructing two major additions at their industrial site. The additions being constructed are expected to cost the company an estimated $6,000,000, this is probably the largest single industrial expansion project in Tacoma in the coming year. The expansion project began shortly after World War II ended, the project is expected to be completed in 1949. Aerial view of St. Regis Paper Company, construction in progress. TPL-5706

Paper industry--Tacoma--1940-1950; Mills--Tacoma; Logs; Industrial facilities--Tacoma; Progress photographs; St. Regis Paper Co. (Tacoma)--1940-1950; Aerial photographs;

Aerial view of new construction in 1948 at St. Regis. St. Regis had an excellent location between the Sitcum Waterway on one side and the Milwaukee Waterway on the other. Below them was Commencement Bay and beyond was more of the Tacoma tideflats. St. Regis was expanding their kraft paper operations and adding a multi-wall bag plant. Logs are seen in Milwaukee Waterway, called the Milwaukee Boom Company dump. Logs were brought in by the railroad and dropped, sorted and made into rafts here. (TNT, 10/17/1948, p.1)

Aerial photographs; St. Regis Paper Co. (Tacoma)--1940-1950; Progress photographs; Paper industry--Tacoma--1940-1950; Industrial facilities--Tacoma--1940-1950; Logs;

The Tacoma plant was producing both bleached and unbleached Kraft paper. This plant was able to supply its own pulp from the local mill, therefore making St. Regis-Tacoma very important in the paper industry. Interior view of Tacoma's St. Regis plant, wood chips are being processed prior to the Kraft paper production.

Paper industry--Tacoma--1940-1950; Machinery; Equipment; Industrial facilities--Tacoma; Lumber industry--Tacoma--1940-1950; St. Regis Paper Co. (Tacoma)--1940-1950;